"Jeremy Hunt, the beleaguered culture secretary who will be questioned at the Leveson Inquiry this week, may step down voluntarily from his cabinet post after the Olympic Games, according to senior government sources. ... it is clear for the first time this weekend that many of Mr Hunt’s colleagues do not believe he will remain in his post for long after the Olympic and Paralympic Games finish in early September." - Sunday Telegraph

Can Jeremy Hunt survive a summer of political heat? - Toby Helm for the Observer

Matthew d'Ancona: David Cameron can use his appearance at the Leveson Inquiry to revive his political fortunes

"Though the cross-examination will be limited to his Lordship’s remit – the “culture, practice and ethics of the press” – it will be seen, inescapably, as a much broader viva voce, a televised appraisal of the PM’s performance to date and fitness to carry on. Two years into his premiership, and in circumstances he could scarcely have foretold when the Coalition was formed, David Cameron will find himself in the dock." - Matthew d'Ancona for the Sunday Telegraph

"Jeremy Hunt's involvement in the BSkyB bid was injudicious. By not resigning, he compounds the damage to the Government." - John Rentoul for the Independent on Sunday

"The Leveson inquiry, designed to examine the sins of the press, has become an inquisition into the government" - Andrew Rawnsley for the Observer

Janet Daley: David Cameron and George Osborne are isolated and impervious to advice, critics say

"The Chancellor, one of my interlocutors informed me, has been so traumatised by the disastrous reception of his Budget that he has gone to ground and become more inaccessible than ever. (“He’s in the bunker now.”) ... What exasperates the disaffected troops is not just the discounting of their views (which they believe would resonate with most people who might consider voting Conservative) but the refusal to engage with them at all" - Janet Daley for the Sunday Telegraph

Whispers against Osborne cause Cabinet division between Chancellor and the Prime Minister - Mail on Sunday

Iain Martin: Has the Coalition reached breaking point? The Lib Dems' brutal assault on the Beecroft report has infuriated the Tories

"Mr Cameron’s dallying over Beecroft leaves some Tory MPs wondering what the point of this government is, beyond David Cameron being in Downing Street. Mr Hilton and Mr Letwin wanted to drive through robust reforms, but yet again Mr Cameron’s response was to prevaricate and blame the Lib Dems for being an immovable roadblock. The patience of some Tory MPs and ministers is wearing thin with the Prime Minister’s familiar old excuses." - Iain Martin for the Sunday Telegraph

The feeble reaction to Beecroft suggests a lack of political vision - Sunday Telegraph editorial

Baroness Warsi apologises for not declaring rental income on register of members' interests

"The Tory peer bought the property in 2007 but moved closer to Parliament when she became a minister in 2010, after which she began letting the Wembley flat. “Due to an oversight, for which I take full responsibility, the flat was not included on the Register of Lords’ Interests when its value and the rent received came to exceed the thresholds for disclosure,” she said. “When the discrepancy became apparent this week, I immediately informed the Registrar of Lords’ Interests of its omission.”" - Scotland on Sunday

"The UK should learn from Germany's successful economy, rather than lecturing the eurozone, Business Secretary Vince Cable says. Speaking to the Independent on Sunday after a visit to Germany, he said "any sense that Britain is lecturing is badly received and is not appropriate". He also said that being called a socialist who did not support business was "absolutely ludicrous"." - BBC

"Given Germany is key to any solution, one would have imagined Clegg sitting down with David Cameron and William Hague to craft a unified British position. ... A credible country can’t deliver mixed messages to the bond markets or foreign governments. But this seems to have been forgotten. As a result, Clegg, an emotional pro-European, was freelancing on the most serious political and economic crisis to hit Europe since the end of the Cold War." - James Forsyth for the Mail on Sunday

"Ed Miliband has questioned why David Cameron thought it was appropriate to give Jeremy Hunt the final decision on News Corp's attempt to buy BSkyB. ... Labour has now opened a new line of attack on the government, following the publication of a memo Mr Hunt sent to the prime minister about the BSkyB deal at a time when business secretary Vince Cable was handling the process." - Metro

And finally... Posh Dave picks the wrong suit as he opts for dressed down style at high-society wedding to fend off class gibes - Mail on Sunday

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Times leader (£): "This newspaper is inclined to the view that an independent Scotland is perfectly feasible and that the terms of departure could be handled amicably, should the Scottish people vote for it. The problem is not, therefore, that such a thing is not doable, but deciding whether it should be done."

The Telegraph leader: "It is a rich irony that an inquiry set up by Mr Cameron to investigate press ethics has turned into a forensic investigation of his Government’s relationship with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp... Britain’s international standing as a good place in which to invest and do business rests, in large part, on an appreciation that we play by the rules and obey the law. The furtive and clandestine shenanigans exposed by the bright light of the Leveson Inquiry are jeopardising that hard-won reputation."

"EU nationals are largely entitled to work anywhere in the single market. If the single currency breaks up, people looking for work abroad may see Britain as an attractive alternative as it is a non-eurozone country. Asked whether emergency immigration controls were being considered , Mrs May said: "It is right that we do some contingency planning on this [and] that is work that is ongoing."" - BBC

"For months now, the leaders of the eurozone have been confronted by a fork in the road. To be fair to them, they have been clear what they should do. Press straight ahead. They have been set upon kicking the can down the road, despite the fact that there is no more road and they have a broken toe." - Bruce Anderson in The Telegraph

"Christine Lagarde, said she has more sympathy for children deprived of decent schooling in sub-Saharan Africa than for many of those facing poverty in Athens. In an uncompromising interview with The Guardian, Lagarde insists it is payback time for Greece and makes it clear that the IMF has no intention of softening the terms of the country's austerity package."

Simon Heffer argues that Labour's economic policies make them unelectable

"Mr Miliband’s team is as bankrupt of ideas about how to save the economy as the Coalition is. Borrowing money, or printing more of it, would simply hasten Britain’s progress to Greek-style bankruptcy and financial implosion, wrecking living standards of Britons for a generation, and quite possibly longer. And that is why Labour’s electability remains an illusion." - Simon Heffer in the Daily Mail

On the deficit and on the euro, Ed Balls has called it correctly on the two most important judgments of recent times - Jonathan Freedland for The Guardian

While Nick Clegg's talk of a push for growth is most welcome, his defence of cuts is discreditable nonsense - Robert Skidelsky in The Guardian

Daily Mail leader: "Nick Clegg and Mr Cameron deliver lectures on the need for robust action by the EU – seemingly unaware that the British economy is collapsing under them. So worried is the IMF that it this week warned Britain may be forced to slash its historically low interest rates even further."

Tory Right wrong to put so much faith in shale gas, warns Ed Davey - Telegraph

It sounds mad, but sane Tories are talking about ousting David Cameron - Andrew Grice in The Independent

"Is David Cameron the most despised party leader in our country’s history? Even leaders who are hated by the opposition – one thinks of Margaret Thatcher or Michael Foot – are invariably adored by their own side. But who believes in David Cameron? He is the only politician I have ever seen who, even when he totally loses his rag, still has to read from a script... Thin-skinned, volatile and never won an election, Cameron wanted to be the heir to Blair but he is more like the blue Gordon Brown" - Tony Parsons in the Daily Mirror

There's some optimism from Patrick O'Flynn in The Express, however: "David Cameron’s team seems to have brought a halt to the own goals" even if its situation is still worrying.

"The truth is that the prison population is not too high but too low. If Mr Clarke wishes to pick a fight he really should first make sure the facts are on his side" - Patrick O'Flynn in The Express

A boss of Cornish pasty firm Ginsters has donated £100,000 to the Conservative Party amid the controversy over George Osborne's "pasty tax" - Western Morning News

Why do civil servants still get honours when so many exceptional people don't? - Chris Bryant in The Independent

Eurovision will do more to bring people together than the EU will ever do - Fraser Nelson in The Telegraph

Grammar schools educated people to lead the world. They can do so again - Chris Blackhurst in The Independent

Our obsession with young politicians is damaging Britain - Alan Massie in The Telegraph

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Sir Andrew Green of MigrationWatch commented: "‘There is no sign of any reduction from the huge numbers that developed under Labour. The problem is that non-EU migrants are simply not leaving. It is time the Lib Dems understood the extent of public concern, including among 75 per cent of their own supporters. The Coalition must now take tough measures to reduce this unacceptable scale of immigration." (Quoted in The Express).

"The figures showed that while estimated long-term immigration remained steady at 589,000, there has been a continuing decline in UK residents emigrating from the UK – which dropped to 338,000 compared with a peak of 427,000 in 2008." - FT (£)

The Times (£): "Students are being allowed into Britain with such poor English that they cannot even answer the question “What is your name?”, an immigration chief has revealed."

Soft on crime? "More than 60,000 criminals were spared a jail sentence last year despite having committed at least 15 previous crimes" - Daily Mail

"Priti Patel, the Tory MP, said: “This is a pitiful legacy of a decade of criminal justice policy that has failed to punish criminals. These alarming figures show that too many criminals are being let off the hook and allowed to reoffend over and over again.” - Quoted in The Telegraph

"Alistair Darling has claimed that Alex Salmond's campaign for Scottish independence has stalled at the starting line after a poll found that only a third of Scots want to leave the UK' - Guardian | Herald

Telegraph leader: "It appears that a Unionist fightback is on – and not before time. One of the more pleasing aspects of this is that David Cameron has persuaded Alistair Darling to lead the campaign against the separatists. The former Labour chancellor is a trusted, moderate and refreshingly non-tribal figure with a substantial global reputation. It is to be hoped that influential Britons throughout the United Kingdom will join Mr Darling in putting their shoulder to the wheel of this most important cause."

Tory MPs say Greek exit will force referendum

"David Cameron will face demands from Tory MPs to redraw Britain’s relationship with Europe in the event of a Greek exit from the eurozone, senior government sources believe. No 10 and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office say that treaties governing the European Union will have to be rewritten after the departure of one of the 17 members of the single currency bloc. This would trigger “aggressive” demands by Tory MPs to hold a referendum on Britain’s EU membership, or pull out of the social chapter, a commitment made by Mr Cameron during his campaign for his party’s leadership." - Times (£)

The end of the €uro could be David Cameron's last chance to shine - Frederick Forsyth in The Express

We must defy Strasbourg on prisoner votes - David Davis and Jack Straw renew their joint position in an OpEd for The Telegraph

Some prisoners have earned the right to vote, so let them - Jonathan Aitken in The Guardian

More 'EU veto moments' please Prime Minister, says Chris Grayling

"In a speech to an event organised by the ConservativeHome website, Mr Grayling noted that the Tories surged to 40 per cent in the polls shortly after the veto. The party is currently languishing at around 30 per cent. He said Mr Cameron needed to find a handful of similar such “EU veto moments” in the remainder of the parliament to get “a lock” on traditional Tory supporters." - Telegraph

>Yesterday on ConHome: Chris Grayling urges Cameron to find more "EU veto moments" as part of his five point election-winning plan

At last! David Cameron is listening to his backbenches: on gay marriage, Lords reform and prisoners' votes - James Chapman in the Daily Mail

'Jeremy Hunt was backing BSkyB bid, not judging it' - Harriet Harman has told ITV News that the Prime Minister should never have appointed Jeremy Hunt to judge News Corp's bid for full control of BSkyB

Daily Mail leader: "Doesn’t it defy belief that, only a month after this memo was written in 2010, and only days before enjoying a Christmas dinner at the home of a senior Murdoch executive, David Cameron saw no conflict of interest in making the clearly biased Mr Hunt the supposedly quasi-judicial, independent arbiter of whether the deal should be approved?"

Gavin Barwell MP yesterday branded a scrap metal thief who stole a plaque from his dad’s grave a “scumbag”

"The Tory vowed: “If I ever find out who you are, you are going to regret it.” The tribute to his dad David, who died in 2005, was nicked from Beckenham Cemetery, Kent." - The Sun

'You need the hide of a Sherman tank' - Edwina Currie gives some advice to David Cameron on keeping his temper in the Commons - Telegraph

Boris Johnson has caused outrage by accusing two-thirds of the cyclists killed and seriously injured in London of causing the crashes by breaking the laws of the road - Independent

Mary Dejevsky: Why the political left should adopt the 'flat tax'

"Simple, transparent and fair, a single tax has at least as much to recommend it for those of modest or average means, as it does for bankers and big business. It offers Mr Miliband an opportunity to reinvent himself as the advocate at once of lower tax, the "squeezed middle" and an effective state, which he could propose to slim down not on US, but on Australian or Swedish lines. His Labour could be the party of 30 per cent maximum taxation; no extortionate marginal rates; no hair-splitting about child benefit; no advantages to be derived from clever accountancy, and no special deals over lunch with HMRC. The 2020 Commission's report runs to 400-plus pages. Mr Miliband and his new policy chief, Jon Cruddas, should get reading." - Mary Dejevsky in The Independent

There is a significant body of economic literature that suggests that small-government countries grow more quickly after accounting for other characteristics - Tim Knox and Ryan Bourne in the Wall Street Journal

The Big Society is a lesson for Labour in how not to sell a big idea - Rafael Behr in the New Statesman

Conservatives in government can claim – and again not without some justification – that they are pursuing progressive policies on welfare by pointing to the way they are busy removing benefits from Britain’s middle-classes - Professor Tim Bale for the Policy Network

Italy would benefit from creation of a modern, pro-business centre-right party, says FT after fringe parties prosper in local elections - FT leader

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I will defy Europe on jail votes, says Cameron as he sets on collision course with judges in Strasbourg - Yorkshire Post

"David Cameron yesterday vowed to fight to defend British sovereignty from European judges by insisting that prisoners will not be given the vote. The Prime Minister said the ban on voting from jail was for Parliament to decide rather than ‘a foreign court’. Downing Street insiders insisted there would be no votes for convicts while Mr Cameron remained in charge of the country." - Daily Mail

"Labour said it would back Mr Cameron if he chose to oppose the ruling. Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said there was cross-party agreement about not giving the vote to prisoners and the ECHR ruling was the “wrong thing”." - Express

"A financial transaction tax (FTT) is a bad idea," Mr Cameron told reporters as he left the [EU] summit. "It will put up the cost of people's insurance, put up the cost of people's pensions, it would cost many, many jobs, and it would make Europe less competitive and I'll fight it all the way."" - Telegraph

Nick Clegg is to warn that Greece exiting the euro is something "no rational person" should advocate and would cause "irrevocable damage" - BBC

Tory MPs will get a free vote on gay marriage as issue is a 'matter of conscience' - Daily Mail | BBC

"Downing Street initially suggested that the Cabinet and junior ministers could be required to support the plans when new laws allowing same-sex marriage are debated in the Commons. However, after a series of senior government figures expressed their dismay at the development, Number 10 sources pledged to allow MPs to vote with their consciences." - Telegraph

"Stewart Jackson, Mr Paterson's former parliamentary private secretary, warned that any attempt to whip MPs would cause "serious divisions". He said: "No 10 would be foolish in the extreme to disregard this as a conscience issue. Whipping the vote would be a catastrophic error of judgement and would generate serious divisions." Peter Bone, the Tory MP for Wellingborough, warned: "There would be uproar in the party and ministerial resignations." Mark Pritchard, a former secretary of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, claimed on the PoliticsHome website: "The Prime Minister has given a clear commitment to a free vote on gay marriage – therefore, Owen Paterson's comments are perfectly in order."" - Independent

Iain Duncan Smith's new Universal Credit benefit to be tested in North West - BBC

Private school head hits out at "Communist Clegg" after he says universities should favour state pupils - Daily Mail

Cameron and Clegg fear that Vince Cable will lend his support to Labour at any time - Simon Heffer in the Daily Mail

"Business leaders stepped up the pressure over the government's reluctance to put weaker employment protection at the heart of its growth strategy when both the Confederation of British Industry and the Institute of Directors condemned the gap between the government's rhetoric and its enterprise bill published on Wednesday." - Guardian

The Telegraph agrees: "Such game-changing measures are needed to inject life into a moribund economy. Instead, we have a disappointing and insipid absence of radicalism that is routinely and conveniently blamed on the intransigence of the Liberal Democrats. That excuse is beginning to wear a little thin."

And so does the FT: "For all the rhetoric about deregulation, Mr Cable’s achievements have been thin. Wednesday’s enterprise bill met with a weary sigh from business. This may explain why Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s former adviser, hired Mr Beecroft in the first place."

But also in The Telegraph Peter Oborne comes to Cable's defence, arguing that "the kind of untrammelled free market capitalism which Mr Beecroft is advocating is inhumane, unedifying and unBritish". In The Times (£) Camilla Cavendish is more practical: "To help good workers you must fire bad ones".

Boris warns again against third runway

"Boris Johnson warned there was a risk the government would “tiptoe back” to consider a third runway at London’s Heathrow airport, a proposal he denounced as “a sham, a snare and a delusion”. The Conservative mayor of London, speaking at the first mayor’s question time since he won a second term at City Hall, insisted a third runway at the UK’s hub airport would be a mistake, even though he acknowledged business was strongly in favour." - FT (£)

"David Cameron is facing increasing pressure from grass roots Conservatives who believe that Downing Street is becoming out of touch with the issues they are hearing about on the doorstep" - Times (£)

The Scottish Government has said the official “Yes to independence” campaign will be a cross- party alliance and that the SNP will not be the only voice - Scotsman

England must not give any more money to Scotland to try and save Union - Ann Widdecombe in The Express

Labour's Jon Cruddas can put tanks on Tory lawns - David Williamson for the Western Mail is impressed by the new Labour policy chief's English and traditional identity

The last thing the Biased Broadcasting Corporation needs is yet another Labour stooge at the helm - Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail

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